JOE BRYAN TO LEAVE FULHAM

The Club can confirm that Joe Bryan will leave Fulham following the expiry of his contract at the end of this month.

With 117 appearances, two promotions, and one iconic brace, Joe departs having left an indelible impression on everyone associated with the football club.

Joining in the summer of 2018, Bryan made his Premier League debut just two days later, with his first goal in black and white arriving the following month in a 3-1 win over Millwall in the Carabao Cup.

An injury picked up against Everton hampered his progress, but he still ended the campaign with 30 appearances in all competitions.

2019/20 was a fantastic year for the left-back, as he formed a prolific understanding with Aleksandar Mitrović. Of the seven assists he registered that season, six of them were for Mitro, who went on to win the Golden Boot.

Of course, Bryan’s most famous moment came in the final game of that season.

With Fulham and Brentford deadlocked as we approached half-time of extra-time in the Championship Play-Off Final, Josh Onomah was fouled in a seemingly harmless wide area of the pitch – some 45 yards from goal.

What happened next will forever go down in the history of our football club, with Bryan bending in a perfectly struck low effort to catch out the Bees goalkeeper and give Fulham control of the game.

“We’d worked on it,” Joe told FFCtv afterwards. “It had been said in meetings that David Raya takes a high, aggressive stance, and 95 per cent of the time it pays off for him and they can have a quick counter-attack. But not against us.

“I just had in my head I was going to score. I just ran away screaming, which was quite funny because there were no fans, so you could just hear a load of grown men shouting!”

Not content with one goal, Bryan put the Final to bed in the second half of extra-time, playing a one-two with Mitrović before rolling a cool strike underneath Raya for 2-0.

The following campaign saw him tick off another career objective by scoring in the Premier League for the first time, earning us a point when he headed in an equaliser against Manchester United at Old Trafford.

2021/22 saw Bryan add another promotion to his CV, this time as a Champion. The form of Antonee Robinson meant he did not feature as often as he would have liked, but he started six of our final nine matches, crucially setting up Mitrović for the first goal in our promotion-clinching victory over Preston North End.

Joe spent last season on loan in France with OGC Nice, where he sampled European football for the first time in his career, scoring in a 1-1 draw with Partizan Belgrade in the Europa Conference League.

In addition to what Joe did for Fulham on the pitch, he also leaves the Club having made a sizeable impression off it.

An incredibly friendly individual, Joe made a big effort with every single person at the Training Ground, and established himself as a firm fan favourite with his infectious personality and dry sense of humour.

He also earned the respect of the entire football community through being refreshingly open about his struggles with mental health, in the hope that it could help others who were going through similar.

Everyone at Fulham would like to thank Joe for his efforts here over the last five years, and wish him all the very best in his next challenge – one we’re sure will be a huge success.

He’s welcome back at the Cottage any time.

“Five years ago I joined Fulham, and got the opportunity to live out my childhood dream,” Joe said. “I look back on the five years of promotions, relegations, goals, mistakes, in the team, out the team, all these different things, all these ups and downs of a football career, with real fondness.

“It’s not always easy – like I say, there were ups and downs – but that’s life. Life’s difficult sometimes, and great other times.

“I’ve met some of the greatest people that I know in football at the Club. It’s a place where I will always feel welcome, and I will always look back on fondly.”

Tony Khan, Fulham FC Vice Chairman and Director of Football Operations, said: “I’ve known Joe since he joined the Club in 2018.

“He’s a keen intellect, he works very hard battling on the pitch, and off the pitch he’s a great gentleman.

“He’s helped secure two promotions, and he wrote himself into Fulham’s history books in 2020 by scoring both extra time goals against Brentford that secured our Play-Off Final win at Wembley.

“Joe is a fantastic professional, but mostly he’s a wonderful person beloved by his teammates, and I want to wish him all the best for the future ahead. Thank you, Joe!”